Sunrises
by Carol
Summary: Darien is missing his mother. Bobby and Claire help him through it


Sunrises (1/1)

By Carol M.

Summary: Darien's missing his mother

Rating: G

Spoilers: Reunion, Father Figure

Disclaimer: I-man, get your I-man, hello out there…UPN, TNN, WB, TNT

Note: Darien has always kind of struck me as a momma's boy, and I wanted to explore a possible relationship between them further .I'm going by the assumption that Father Figure was correct in that Darien lived with his mother until going to live with his aunt and uncle. Also for purposes of this story, I'm assuming that D and K lived in San Diego until mom died and then they went to live in Cold Springs with their aunt and uncle. P.S. I will start on DS 9 and 10 shortly, I promise. Enjoy this one, folks!

The sky was a thousand different colors; fiery reds, brilliant oranges, delicate purples and electric pinks. The sun shone in a blazing glory through the prism of colors, shining over them like the pot at the edge of a rainbow. Below the sky was the ocean, rippling sparkles cascading through the water. The air was salty and fresh, a slight breeze bringing goose bumps out of the flesh. And the only noises were the seagulls, squawking as they flew  
by in flocks. And then of course, there was the horn, wrecking the picturesque setting in a way only an old rusted Ford could.  
"Fawkes!" yelled Bobby as he blared Golda's horn. "Come on, Fawkes, we're gonna be late!"  
Darien stuck his hands in his pockets and sunk deeper into his sitting position in the sand, defiantly continuing to gaze at the awesome sight before him. He was not letting Bobby or his annoying horn ruin this peaceful  
moment for him.  
Bobby laid on the horn again. "Fawkes, if you're not in this van in five seconds, I'm gonna come out and kick your skinny little punk ass right into the ocean, my friend," he yelled in an extremely annoyed tone.  
Darien smiled and slowly started to stand up, wiping away the sand that covered the back of his clothes. He took one last glimpse of the sunrise and begrudgingly turned around. He kicked the sand at his feet as he trudged  
towards Golda, his hands once again buried deep in his pockets. He bit his bottom lip and a feeling of sadness swept through his body. He shrugged it off and opened the passenger door of the ancient van.  
Bobby shook his head. "It's about freakin time, partner. The fatman ain't paying us to check out nature, he's paying us to find the missing witness."  
Darien chose not to respond and instead, crawled into the van and lay back against the headboard, shutting his eyes.  
Bobby stared curiously at him as he turned the key to start his beloved van. "So, Fawkes, what's with you and watching the sun rise lately?"  
Darien shrugged. "I don't know?" he mumbled in a barely audible tone.  
Bobby shook his head, not buying his lack of explanation. "Come on, there's got to be a reason. You don't just get up at five in the morning every day so you can watch the freakin sun rise. Normally I have to drag your ass out of bed at this hour. What is it with the last couple days?"  
Darien opened his eyes and gave Bobby an irritated glare. "No reason, okay, just drop it."  
Bobby look slightly taken aback as he carefully pulled Golda out of the sand and into the busy San Diego morning traffic. "Whatever you say, partner," he said in a hurt tone.  
Darien shook his head remorsefully. "Sorry, man, it's just really personal, okay."  
Bobby looked over at Darien and took in his eyes, which were swelled with an inner sadness that was threatening to explode to the surface. "You want to talk about it?"  
"Naw," said Darien quickly.  
"Okay, well if you change your mind," said Bobby, trailing off.  
Darien nodded and forced the sad look on his face back under the surface of his emotional veil. "I know who to call," he said with a small smile.  
"Yeah, cause you know, I do have a lot of experience with therapy...well, even though it's normally me on the receiving end," said Bobby.  
"Hey, look at it this way, you probably kept half the shrinks in San Diego in business," said Darien.  
"Yeah and with what the fatman pays me, it was a small fortune," said Bobby.  
Darien nodded and stared out the window of Golda, trying to get back to that peaceful place, but it just wasn't working. He sighed and an old memory from his childhood started to float through his head…

"See Darien, didn't I tell you that getting up so early would be worth it?" said a tall women with long chestnut brown hair. 

Little Darien looked up curiously at her, shading his eyes from the sun. He wondered if he would ever be tall like his mom. Kevin was already an inch taller than he was and it made him extremely upset. "Can we go home now?" he whined.

His mother sighed and shook her head in amusement. She pointed up at the sky. "Darien, you haven't even looked at the sky yet," she said as she continued to point.

Darien looked in the direction of her finger and the image he saw nearly took his breath away. It was the morning beachside sunrise, all the colors seeming to sparkle just for him. He looked up at his mom in amazement. "Whoa, it's beautiful, mommy," he said with an excited grin.

Darien's mother returned his smile and knelt down next to him in the sand. "You see, Darien, it's all a clean slate. Every day, you can start over, anything is possible," she said as she nodded towards the sky. "And what better way to start off a brand new day then to watch the heavens roll through the sky."

Darien lay down in the sand and stared up at the sky, letting the warm sun bask his skin. His mother lay down next to him and took his hand in hers. "Now do you see why I wanted you to get up so early, kiddo."

Darien turned to her and nodded. "Thanks, mommy."

Darien's mother leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. "This is our time together. Every day this summer we're going to come out here and watch the sunrise, okay."

Darien nodded happily. 

"When you're older, you can bring you're girlfriends here for a date and they'll think you're super romantic. But we'll worry about that in a couple years," she whispered.

Darien gave her a disgusted look. "Girls are gross, mom," he said.

His mother laughed and ruffled his shaggy brown hair. "You'll change your mind one day, Darien, trust me."

Darien shrugged and looked back up at the sun, trying to memorize all the colors he saw.

"I love you, baby," whispered his mother.

Darien looked at her and nodded his head. "I love you too, mommy,"…

A blaring horn caused Darien to jump back to the present.

"Watch where you're going, you idiot!" Bobby yelled to a Black Porsche that had cut him off. "They think that just because they drive a fancy car they own the road," whispered Bobby to himself.

Darien rubbed the sides of his temples, trying to ease the tension headache he could already feel building. Today was going to be a long and hard day. At least he had been able to get tomorrow off like he had been counting on for months. He sighed and curled against the window, trying to nap a little before the day officially started.

**

"How many times do I have to say it, warn a guy when you're gonna turn him invisible," said Bobby as he dragged Darien's tired form towards the Keep.  
Darien shook his head and gave him a small grunt. "Really not a good time to be arguing, pal," said Darien as he held out his wrist which was indicating he was one segment away from madness.  
"That's okay, I have complete faith in your powers of control," said Bobby as he used Darien's swipe card to open the Keep door. "Keep, he needs a shot!" he yelled as he manhandled Darien to the counteragent chair.

Claire looked up from her computer in concern. She immediately got up and ran to the refrigerator, pulling out some counteragent. She filled a syringe, ejected the air bubbles and quickly injected the drug into Darien's arm. Darien's eyes rolled back in his head and he blacked out.

Claire glanced at Darien's face and was alarmed when she saw bruises and a large cut on his cheek. "What happened?" she asked Bobby as she stepped forward to examine Darien closer.

"The witness kind of roughed Fawkesy up a little before we got him out of his hiding place," he said as he lifted up Darien's shirt to reveal several bruises. 

Claire began to palpitate the bruises, causing Darien to stir. "Can I go home?" he asked in a child-like voice as he tried to rise off the chair.

Claire frowned. "I just want to check out some of these bruises to make sure you don't have any broken bones," she said as she continued to probe.

Darien rolled his eyes and sank back down in the chair. He looked at his watch and saw that it was nearly eleven at night. His attention went to the Keep door as the Official suddenly slammed through it with enthusiasm.

"Good work, boys," he said as he stepped towards the trio. "Mr. Michael's has already given us very valuable information concerning his organization."

"See Fawkesy, all our efforts were not in vain," said Bobby as he hit Darien's shoulder.

Darien smiled dryly.

"First thing tomorrow, I want you two to check out some addresses that Mr. Michael's informed us has some interesting weapons deals occurring on a daily basis," said the Official.

Darien looked up at him in a panic. "Tomorrow's my day off," he said.

The Official shook his head. "Sorry, kid, but the day off has got to wait. We need to move on this now before the organization gets wind that we're on to them."

Darien's jaw muscles flared in anger. "Look, send out some other guy, okay. I need to have tomorrow off. I've been counting on it for months," he said in desperation.

Bobby eyed him curiously. "Do you have a birthday or something we don't know about?" he asked.

Darien shook his head. "No, okay, just please, I need tomorrow off!" he practically shouted.

Claire planted her hand on Darien's shoulder. "Sir, it might not be such a bad idea to let Darien have the day off. He got pretty banged up today."

Darien shot Claire a grateful look.

The Official shook his head. "No, absolutely not. We need you on the job tomorrow, Fawkes. You can take a day off when this case is finished."

"But sir, I've…"

"No buts, Fawkes," said the Official gruffly.

"I don't care!" shouted Darien as he forced himself off the chair. "I'm taking the day off tomorrow and that's the end of it!"

Bobby and Claire both shot each other worried glances.

"Are you disobeying an order?" asked the Official, fuming with anger.

"Um, that would be a positive," said Darien sarcastically, as he walked towards the door. "I asked for this specific day off months ago. You're just going to have to find someone else," he said, walking out the door.

The Official looked at Bobby and Claire in confusion. "Do you two have any idea what that was about?"

Bobby and Claire both shook their heads.

"No, sir," said Claire.

The Official looked at Bobby. "Hobbes, make sure you get him here tomorrow. I don't care if you have to drag him to this Agency in handcuffs just get him here."

Bobby nodded. "You got it, chief."

The Official shook his head in anger and headed out the door.

Claire looked at Bobby with concern. "What's going on with Darien lately?"

"So you've noticed it too?" said Bobby.

Claire nodded. "Yeah, the last week or so he hasn't been himself. I thought maybe he was just depressed about the gland again, but after this I don't know what to think."

"That makes two of us," said Bobby. He started for the door. "But I'm gonna find out what's going on in that big-haired brain of his even if I have to torture him with war stories to do it."

Claire waved goodbye. "Let me know if there's anything I can do," she said.

Bobby nodded. "Gotcha," he said as he walked out the door.

**

Bobby strode purposefully up to Darien's apartment door and banged loudly. "Fawkes, I know you're in there. I saw your piece of crap car parked outside."

"Go away, Hobbes," he heard Darien yell.

"No way, my friend. Bobby Hobbes doesn't bail on his partner," said Bobby as he took a set of lock picks out of his pocket and picked opened the lock. The door was swung open after about 10 seconds. "You need to get a better security system, buddy," said Bobby as he eyed Darien sitting at his kitchen table.

"Apparently," said Darien as he stood up and marched towards Bobby. "Hobbes, go home," he said firmly.

Bobby shook his head. "Nope. Something's eating away at you and I'm here to find out what it is," he said stubbornly.

Darien smirked. "Well I guess you're going to be here all alone then," said Darien as he let the quicksilver flow from his skin and turned invisible. "See ya," he shouted over his shoulder as he ran through the door.

"Fawkes," yelled Bobby as he swiped at Darien. He ran out the door and muttered a curse when he realized the thermal glasses were in the van. He hadn't expected Darien to pull his disappearing act so he hadn't bothered to bring them up with him. 

With a sigh, he looked back inside the apartment, noticing that the kitchen table was covered in papers. He stepped closer and realized it was pictures. He sat down at the table and started thumbing through the photos, mostly of which were of a tall, dark-haired woman who looked very familiar. He continued shuffling through the pile and saw a few pictures with a brown-haired little boy posing with the woman. He scattered some of the pictures and noticed a newspaper article hidden beneath the pile. Curious, he picked the article up and started to read.

"Woman dies in car accident."

Sarah Fawkes, 35, died Thursday in a car crash off of old Maple road. She is survived by her mother-in-law, Madeline Fawkes, and two children, Kevin and Darien Fawkes. Funeral services will be he held Saturday at the First Church of San Diego.

"All be damned," said Bobby as he set down the article and looked back at one of the pictures. He looked at the woman and saw the eyes of his partner staring back at him. He looked back at the article and noticed the date. December 14, 2001. Tomorrow was the anniversary of Darien's mother's death.

With a heavy sigh, Bobby pulled out his cell phone and dialed Claire's number. "Hey Keep, this is Bobby. I'm at Darien's apartment and I found something. I think I might need your help with this one."

**

"You're absolutely brilliant, Bobby," said Claire as she saw the shadow of a form sitting in the sand several hundred yards away. They had spent all night looking for Darien with no success.

"Yeah well, I know my partner like a book. He's been coming here every morning this week. I figure this whole sunrise thing has to do with his mom," he said.

Claire got out of the van. "I'm going to talk to him. Do you want to come with me?"

Bobby shook his head. "No, I think this one's better left to a chick."

"Right," said Claire. She started to walk towards the dark lump sitting in the sand. When she got close to Darien, she started walking softly, trying not to disturb him. He was staring straight ahead, looking intently at the sky. 

"I really know how to pick good hiding places, don't I?" he said softly.

Claire sat down next to him in the sand. "We're worried about you, Darien."

Darien snorted and continued to stare straight ahead at the rising sun.

"Tell me about your mother," she urged gently.

Darien looked at her in alarm, a betrayed look evident on his face. His eyes started to sparkle with what looked suspiciously like tears. He shook his head and lay his head against his knees. He felt a hand gently rubbing his back, causing him to look back at Claire.

"Please? You'll feel better," she said.

Darien laughed slightly and shook his head. His gaze once again fell towards the ocean. "My mom used to bring me here," he said softly. He cleared his throat and wiped at his eyes. The outline of a smile appeared on his face. "The spring right after my dad left was really hard. My mom was taking care of Kevin and I, plus she was working. Well that summer, Kevin ended up going to some of kind scientist summer camp for smartypants nerds."

"Hey," said Claire.

"Sorry, no offense," said Darien apologetically. "Anyway, that summer it was just me and my mom. She had to be at work every day at nine and wouldn't get home until seven or eight. I spent the day with my grandmother, playing in the orange groves and getting in fights with the neighbors. But one morning, my mom made me get up with her really early. I was really mad because I had gone to bed really late the night before and I was tired. But she hauled me out of bed anyway and insisted that it would be worth it," said Darien, his voice cracking slightly.

"So she puts me in the car and drives me here. I bitch and moan cause I want to go back to bed, but she won't hear of it. She led me out of the car and walked me down to the sand. Then she pointed up at the sky and showed me the sunrise," he said, the memory of that first sunrise dancing before his eyes. "I just…I couldn't believe how beautiful it was, you know. We both laid down in the sand and just looked at all the colors. She would tell me how much she loved me and what a good boy I was. Then we'd get back in the car and she'd take me to my grandma's house. All summer, every single day, we would watch the sunrise together. It was our special time, just me and my mom. She used to say that every sunrise meant a clean start, that anything was possible," said Darien, shaking his head slightly.

Claire nodded. "So that's why you been watching the sunrise the past week," she said.

Darien turned to her and nodded. "Yeah," he whispered. "She..uh.. she died that December, and that's when Kevin and I went to live with our aunt and uncle," he said in a shaky voice. "The first in a long line of women who've left me," he said, his voice struggling not to become a sob.

"Shhhh, it's okay," said Claire soothingly as she took him into an embrace.

"I miss her," sniffled Darien. He lost his struggle and starting sobbing softly. "Sometimes when it all gets to be too much, I just want to go home to mom and have her hold me and tell me it's going to be okay, but I can't," he said through a raspy sob. "She's probably so disappointed in me. Here I am, her good little boy turned into a criminal."

"Darien, stop it. Wherever your mom is, she loves you no matter what mistakes you make. She might not be here in a physical sense, but she's still right here," said Claire, patting Darien's heart. She pointed towards the sunrise. "Look at that, Darien, that's your mom giving you hope. Think of the sunrise as her gift to you. Remember her, mourn and celebrate her life, but don't think of her death as another downfall in your own life. People die and people leave Darien, there's nothing you can do about it. Take whatever gifts they've given you while they were here and use them to the best of your abilities."

Darien nodded his head silently and continued to sniffle. "Today's the anniversary of her death. I was gonna go to my old house and then spend the rest of the day here to remember her," he said. "Guess that won't be happening what with the witness and all."

"You're here, Darien. You're here right now, when it counts. Your mom is probably looking down at you right now, rolling her eyes at your hair," she said softly.

The comment earned the trace of a smile on Darien's face. "How'd you know I'd be here?"

Claire smiled. "A little bald bird named Bobby," she said, turning around and pointing at the van.

"Should've known," said Darien with a real smile this time.

"How about after work we all go out to dinner and you can tell me and Bobby all about your mom?" asked Claire.

Darien nodded slowly, wiping the remaining tears from his face. "Thanks."

Claire gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'm here whenever you need to talk to me, Darien. I may not be your mom, but I give good hugs."

Darien laughed and stood up from the sand. "Can't argue with you there."

"Ready to go to work now?" asked Claire as she also stood up from the sand.

"Yeah, just give me a few seconds, okay?" said Darien.

"Sure, whenever you're ready. I'll be in the van with Bobby," said Claire as she stalked off towards Golda.

Darien took a deep breath and gazed for a few more moments at the waning sunrise. He looked high up in the sky and thought he might actually be able to see where the earth stopped and heaven began. He took his hand and blew a kiss to the sky. "Wherever you are mom, I love you. It's a brand new day and I'm going to do my best to make the most of it," he said softly. With that, he shoved his hands in his pockets and trudged towards Golda, smiling slightly at the memory of his mother.

That's All Folks


End file.
